Anyone's Ghesquiere

NICOLAS GHESQUIERE , the brain behind Balenciaga recently named International Designer of the Year, is one of fashion's hottest names du jour. But even he doesn't know how he does it. "I can't define what I do and I don't really want to," he tells the August issue of Vogue . "If people interpret this or that in a certain way, it's fine. It's done for that reason - to be open." The 30-year-old Frenchman has shot to the top of the fashion pile since taking over as creative director of Balenciaga in 1997. But he hasn't let it go to his head, flouting the party lifestyle so usually synonymous with the fashion industry to concentrate on trying to live up to his house's name and its founder, the man Christian Dior referred to as "the master of us all", Cristóbal Balenciaga. "Balenciaga discovered so many things, was so inventive, it's astonishing. I can work on something and then look back through the archives and find it there already. It's like working behind a very beautiful screen. It's incredible to have his name in front of mine." Having conquered the catwalk with creations that have become wardrobe essentials for the likes of Kate Moss and Jade Jagger, Ghesquiere is now busy developing the Balenciaga empire, with plans to launch a myriad of perfumes, stores and accessory lines - as well as his own label. "It's exciting to think about it. I can't say exactly how I will do it," he says. But one thing's for certain. He will.

This article was first published in the August 2001 issue of Vogue magazine